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Ep.50 The Ones We Miss
129 Plays3 years ago
There are memories that can feel so real.. You question your own sanity.. Thoughts that plague your mind so intensely that you believe the lies your eyes and ears tell you in the pale moonlight. Rest easy, Swords. Enjoy your festivities.. Have your night to shed the cares of the world.
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Transcript
Joy of Dancing and Daven's Search
00:00:13
Speaker
previously on the higher swords. I forgot what it felt like to dance. Maybe even what it felt like to laugh and instead forget about the evils in the world for just a night. I needed this. We needed this. I know I can't last forever, but to be welcomed by Gis and the goblins and watch them finally stretch out and feel the weight of Wild Hill off their shoulders.
00:00:41
Speaker
They needed this night just as bad as we did. Joxa and his ails that heal the soul and Gwynndale sorting out the problems of the worlds with each beat of the barge drum. And Daven? I just hope he can find something of use in Darnaldi's cabin. Though I don't mind sticking around for another song or two.
00:01:30
Speaker
You're listening to the Hired Swords, the podcast where we roll dice and shake our Garuth eggs.
00:01:49
Speaker
Hey everybody,
Arrival at Goblin Village
00:01:50
Speaker
and welcome back to The Hired Swords. I'm your host, Mike, and I've got with me here, Blaze. Oh, I'm first this time. Yeah, man. With snacks in your mouth. Yep. It's not D&D without snacks. Also, I got Ash. Hello. She plays Gwendolyn. Oh, Craig's plays. Or no, Blaze plays Craig's, by the way. I play Craig's. And Derek is here. Hi, I'm third. Hello, hi. How are you?
00:02:18
Speaker
Yeah, he plays Davin Mikey, whose jocks are sitting here too. I'm dead last this round. Yeah, well, I just went by the order of the people on the screen. So that's what happens. So when we last left off, you guys made your way into the Goblin Village, hung out for a little while with guests, learned a little bit about how the village works that Darnaldi kind of ran the place and had been gone for a few weeks. You
00:02:43
Speaker
were invited to go ahead and stay at a couple of these hunters huts that were there that were really nice made for the nobles to feel comfortable. So after getting settled there and then after Gwendolyn kind of finding the animals here that are being raised
00:03:00
Speaker
by the by these goblins they're being overfed they're they're being bred to be heavy and slow and they are uh kind of it was kind of sad and she met a little goblin young young person who
00:03:15
Speaker
she talked to a little bit and maybe scared a little. She's not quite sure. And she says no, probably not. And learned that they were in fact overfeeding these creatures in order to make them easier to hunt for these nobles who don't really know how to hunt. So that was kind of the what happened with Gwendolyn and the small goblin creature. Then they
Party with Goblins and Sneaking Mission
00:03:37
Speaker
made their way back to the tavern deciding the
00:03:41
Speaker
Several of them were going to go in and kind of party and hang out. And so they went in and started a little shindig, getting the goblins to join in with some singing and dancing and drinking. And then, uh, Daven decided, or they kind of recruited Daven and decided he was going to go walk through Darnaldi's house while all the goblins and everybody were distracted with the little party in the tavern. So when we left off last, Daven had just made it into
00:04:08
Speaker
Darnaldi's place, and he is in a small room in which there are some little crates and things like that, and you can see that there are little sacks of flour or other kinds of goods here and there, and this is kind of a store room that had a door that went out that was unlocked.
00:04:36
Speaker
What do you do now? Is this connected to the main house? Is there another door that would go further? It looks like there is a doorway that you could walk through. Right as you walk out into the door of the room that you're in, you can see a doorway to your left that you could walk into. I have put you on the map in Roll20 if you want to look at it. So yeah, you've got the map right there in front of you.
00:05:02
Speaker
for you and you can see the room you're currently in is just this small rectangular storage room with a doorway ahead of you to the left just just a couple feet. Okay, I will move through there into the next room.
Discovering Hieroglyphic Texts
00:05:15
Speaker
Okay, that room is a sitting room of sorts with a bookshelf to your left. It's, it's floor to ceiling. And it's got many books just like piled with books six shelves on there. And
00:05:29
Speaker
You see several of them are rows of books that are, they all have like matching colors, looks like series of books, but there's just a lot of them here. There's a couple of books on the little table in the middle of the room where there's a long rug that goes the length of, nearly the length of the room with a bench sitting against the wall and a small little cushioned rocking chair sitting there by the little table. There's a doorway to your south, just ahead of where you walked into the room.
00:05:58
Speaker
And then there's a little hall kind of behind you as you walked in here, behind you to your right. I'm just going to look at the books, just casually glance through them and just see if there was anything that pokes out as interesting. Okay. Yeah. Uh, you see, uh, you see books just kind of, uh, all different kinds. There's, there's certain, some of them are in different languages. There's some in elven, there's some in goblin, there's some in, uh,
00:06:26
Speaker
There's many in common. Some in a language you haven't really seen. It's like almost a hieroglyphic type imagery. But you do notice that there are some that are labeled pretty specifically. And I'm actually going to show you what that looks like. And it's almost like library lettering. It's got the volume and book in their set in order that way too.
00:06:57
Speaker
There's that. So you can see the kind of way these books are laid out on these shelves. There's volume one. It says V1B1 in common and just kind of laid out with the names of the books on the spines of the book there. Was I supposed to be seeing something? You said I'm going to show you, but nothing changed. Yep. I sent it to you. I said show to players. Oh, there it is. It just popped up.
00:07:24
Speaker
I also put it in your player handbook or whatever for the chat there.
00:07:47
Speaker
Yeah, some of these books are there's just a sampling. It's arcane abilities in youth, noble secrets, the harvest, never enough time. There's one called the plague and what we learned. There's one called easy horsemanship. One's called the gears wouldn't stop. They're just kind of a collection. It seems like a different books about kind of different things, but they're kind of set in a in this order in some way anyway. All right. He's gonna just kind of try and
00:08:15
Speaker
bring those to memory real fast, but he's not going to take any of them. He's not really interested in making it like he was here. So he's going to move on to the other side of the room. There was a doorway on the other side that he's going to kind of go through. All right. You can look around in there, make a investigation check if you want to look like extra.
00:08:31
Speaker
I will. It looks like it's a bedroom. I'm going to check under the bed.
Enigmatic Box Discovery
00:08:36
Speaker
There is a double bed. There's a rug taking up this entire wooden floor in this room. Stone walls on the outside. One of the windows is in this room as well. It's shuttered shut. You can see it's kind of bolted with an iron bolt through an iron kind of hole that has been screwed into the side of this wooden shutter. Looking around here was a 16.
00:08:59
Speaker
16. All right. As you look around, you do see you do see several the the bedding and everything is super nice. It's it's you see several signs of just the best quality everything in here. This one of these soft beds again, it's very high class. The rug is beautiful and ornate. But you do notice that the rug on
00:09:27
Speaker
one side, it kind of has a little bit of a crease kind of near the corner on that left side towards the left side of the room. It's like it's, it wants to come up on that side, curl up a little bit. Devin smiles. This is kind of making him excited a little bit going through something like this. Uh, he's going to go over and he's going to lift up that side of the rug. Okay. Uh, so you lift up that side of the rug and, uh, make an investigation check. Cause it looks like just floorboards beneath you.
00:09:57
Speaker
That is a 14 plus four, 18, not bad. The floorboards, it's just floorboards, but one of them has a knot in it, in the board itself. And it looks kind of rough and the edges are kind of scratched up and worn of this plank in these floorboards. I'm gonna see if I can pry it loose and lift it up
00:10:27
Speaker
Okay, so you make a slide a hand check as you try to kind of pry it up. That is a 14. Yeah, easy enough, you're able to reach in and kind of grab and pull it up a little bit and it pops up. And as it pops up and gets loose there, it kind of you can slide it out and look and inside it looks like there's a little a small box inside of there.
00:10:57
Speaker
I'm gonna take a quick look around make sure that I'm not being stuck up on and then I'm gonna open up the box and see what's inside So the box actually doesn't look to have like a seam to open It's it's a wooden box. It's about the size of like a loaf of bread. It doesn't really have a
00:11:20
Speaker
a seam around the outside like I said it's like it's just a wooden box but you do notice on the top there's like parchment that is like been like this has been like kind of varnished almost this whole rectangle cube kind of thing has kind of been varnished and underneath the varnish on the top of this thing is a
00:11:42
Speaker
It's like a grid with images on it. There are 36 images on this grid. Yeah, six rows of six images on this grid and you can see as you look at this and I'm going to show you this as well.
00:12:04
Speaker
Can you see it? Yeah. Okay. So I see six rows of six, all these little symbols. It looks like a symbol. Yeah. On each one is a different symbol. There's a fish. There's a sore that looks like a little snow globe and a mountain. There's a pickaxe and a loaf of bread, a paw, just a bunch of different random symbols. Yeah. But that's the whole box. That's just, that's what, and the rest of it's just wood. It feels like just wood, a wooden cube, a rectangle. Devin's going to kind of shake his head and say, I was never good at puzzles.
00:12:34
Speaker
I'm
Goblin Party Revelry
00:12:35
Speaker
going to take, how big is the box? Will it fit in my bag? It's about the size of a loaf of bread, like I said. Okay. So I'm going to stuff it in my backpack. When I do, since I'm invisible and the things I carry is invisible, does it turn invisible when I put it in my bag?
00:12:48
Speaker
Yeah, it becomes a part of what you're carrying, so it's going to be invisible. Okay. Devin's just amused by it. He's never actually used the spell before, so he just likes the fact that he just watched it disappear as he pushes it in the bag. As it goes invisible, it's like you're putting it through a little swirling lightning cloud almost. That's just kind of... Sweet. ...when it's gone. I'll put the floorboard back. I'll put the rug back so everything looks like it was untouched, and I'm going to go wander through the rest of the house. Okay.
00:13:16
Speaker
While you're getting ready to wonder, I'm going to check back on the party at the tavern over here. Krigs Gwyndolin and Joxer, you guys were at the party, uh, dancing up a storm. It seems like Daven got started going into this place about when the party really started getting exciting. More people coming in and joining and Joxer finally getting some of his brew out there. Joxer, how's that brew that you're distributing? Uh, potent. Um, every, everybody is, is affected. It's, it's, uh, so.
00:13:46
Speaker
But I have three kind of rolling through. Two of them are basically minus a stat. And those are the ones that I'm pouring right now. And then there is one that I'm trying to save until the end of the night. Okay. So as you are giving everybody drinks, the goblins, they can't really hold this stuff very well. They're starting to act goofy fast. And in fact, a couple of them
00:14:15
Speaker
get into a little, a little brawl in the back, but they, they, it doesn't last very long as they start to just like laugh at each other because they can hardly stand up straight enough to actually fight. Um, one guy comes in and one goblin, he's a little taller than the rest and a little bulkier.
00:14:33
Speaker
Still a goblin man, but he walks in and he's like kind of tank top looking black tank top looking shirt with He's wearing him the black shorts and a sandals. He's got one of those tufts of hair kind of like guess does on top of his head, but it's a
00:14:50
Speaker
dark black. He actually, if you look close, looks like he kind of might have a little scruffy like beard growth, which is strange for a goblin, but he's doing his best. And he walks up to the bar, he kind of looks around at everybody. He walks up to the bar and he slams his hand on the table and he says, I want food. And the couple, and jocksure that so he's like looking at you, I want food.
00:15:16
Speaker
Yeah, I was curious about that. What do I see or do I see anything that I can make out of? Sure. On the counter behind you, you just kind of see bowls filled with different stuff and there's a lot of different kinds of meat and things like that that are cooked as well as some root vegetables and mostly gathered, like gathered vegetables, like mushrooms and things like that, as well as
00:15:40
Speaker
food like meats that have been harvested from the wilds or some of the animals that they raise here. So that's all available there. Some there's actually some stuff cooked there already too. Like you've almost got like a kind of like a Qdoba kind of thing going on behind you with like little bowls of food ready to just assemble a plate of food and give it to somebody.
00:16:00
Speaker
Yeah, I'll I'll I'll grab, you know, a plate of some sort and I'll throw meat and kind of decorate it with some mushrooms and leaves underneath and and then bring out and pour out another brew. And then I'll hear some deja brew and some food.
00:16:21
Speaker
The episode is not sponsored by Kadoba, though we are available if you're interested. Yeah, hungry. So, yeah, just gift cards, I think would be fine. But he grabs your drink and he goes, Deja Brew, I don't get it. And he takes a big drink and then he puts his hand down in the food and just takes a handful and just starts munching on it. And Gis walks up behind him now and he goes, I've got to go take it easy, Kevin.
00:16:51
Speaker
Bye, jokester. I got to go back with mom. That's Kevin. He goes to leave. Yes. Yes. I hope you enjoyed. And as he's walking away, I'll try to sneakily use my mage hand to refill the beer to do the full effect of Deja Brew. OK. I'm going to make a perception check. Go ahead and make a sleight of hand check. I'll make a perception check for Kevin. OK.
00:17:21
Speaker
Oh, no. And yes, we have a listener named Kevin. And this is who this is named after. I think you know who it is. I am you know, I'm gonna I'm gonna use a luck point for that because that three is not gonna do it. 18.
00:17:41
Speaker
18 yep so you successfully are able to pour that without without him noticing and I'll I'll respond I thought you were gonna have some of that that brew okay he just downs the whole thing well well done Kevin does it do anything to him right away um
00:18:08
Speaker
I guess roll a d6. Okay, okay. I got some of those. I rolled a one. Yeah, I rolled a one. He's just feeling a little less strong. Okay. Just duh. Okay. Yeah, he says down- I guess he's leaving in while I'm dancing. Guess the party's just started. Where are you going?
00:18:32
Speaker
Is that Gis? Right, yeah Gis is leaving us! No! The party just started!
00:18:43
Speaker
I wanna take Gis in a standard like dancing position and I'm gonna kinda spin him around, headed towards the door, I'm not gonna impede his walking.
Gis's Mother's Haunting Dreams
00:18:52
Speaker
But I'm gonna twirl him about, we're about the same height, so we're just gonna spin him out. Okay, as he's spinning with you, he's kinda chuckling. Okay, okay, make an insight check as you look at him while you're kinda trying to dance with him.
00:19:10
Speaker
My best for all the night, 17. Plus, sorry, I need to check my character sheet because I can't remember these things. It happens. It really is amazing how hard it is to remember just a couple things you use all night long. Perception, let me check for the 18 times. I think this might be the first time I've used Insight this entire campaign. Anyway, 21 because I have a big time Insight.
00:19:34
Speaker
Yeah, he looks very concerned. He can't wait to get out the door. It seems like he's really worried. And he's just like, okay, yeah, thank you, you guys, have fun. And as you get to the doorway, he kind of opens it and kind of scurries off into the night, into the village. I am compelled. As he was walking out and as he went through the door, would I have been able to follow him in a way?
00:20:01
Speaker
I mean, yeah, you can go out there with him. He's not running. He's just kind of not. He's beelining it straight back to one of looks like the huts back in the back. OK, I'm going to kind of yell back, Gwen, I believe I'm going to be I'll be I'll be back. What? And that was something jokes. Fantastic work.
00:20:24
Speaker
Oh, I'm gonna, I'll be back. I'm gonna escort our Giz here, make sure he gets back home safely. Be sure and make it back soon. I'm handing out food now. And there's like bowls that are starting to like go to tables, one in front of Gwen with, you know, just mushrooms and leaves and just like greens. Giz, hold on. Let me.
00:20:53
Speaker
It's been so long. Let me escoot you home for the night. Come on. And I'm gonna try to catch up. Did you almost say to scoot you home? Scoot you home. I'm gonna escoot you home. I'm gonna scoot you home. Maybe he did. Maybe, maybe, uh, Krigs had a little slip of the tongue after a little too much of Joxo's brew. But, uh, yeah, he, he obliges right away. You know, he's,
00:21:18
Speaker
Oh, okay. Thank you. I guess we're right around the corner here and he walks past that tree that Gwendolyn had helped that or helped that goblin under a small goblin. Helped, mind you. Yeah, sure. He did. She didn't cure his little bruises, but then he walks around the corner.
00:21:40
Speaker
Walks around the corner and gets to a one of the little just small huts. It's not it's just almost identical to the rest of a little grass hut with some sticks and some thatch roof going on and walks in the little holy says, I'm safe. Thank you. And and this you see this kind of hunched over older looking goblin woman step outside and and she's not super old looking. She just has kind of got this kind of hunch hunch over.
00:22:10
Speaker
And as she steps outside, she says, kiss, I don't, thank you. And waves at you and kind of ushers gifts inside. Well, I have a good night, I guess. It's very lovely to meet you, ma'am. You have a very wonderful family here. Great one in that guess. He's got a good heart on him.
00:22:39
Speaker
He's my boy. He sure is. I don't mean to impose. Darnaldi seems to be gone for longer than you would anticipate. Is everything okay here? I don't really want to impose, but I guess I have a bit of history.
00:23:04
Speaker
I just want to make sure that we're not going to set out and leave you and yours here in a position that is unfavorable to you. Giz has been so kind to show us around town and be very hospitable. I just sense there's something weighing on him. He worries about me. I'm constantly
00:23:34
Speaker
giving him worry. Since his dad passed away, I've been not the same, I guess. He says so, at least. I've been having these nightmares, and apparently he thinks I'm dreaming.
00:23:53
Speaker
telling you they're as real as the day. They just, I wake up, I hear his voice and I follow it and I see him and he's urging me to come to him and guess always seems to find me before I step out and go towards him. And I just, I miss him so much. I just miss him so much. You understand? You know, I really do. I lost my father as well.
00:24:22
Speaker
It feels like it's been forever, but it's really not been all that long, I suppose. And the toll that it took on my mother was immeasurable. I haven't seen her, I believe, since that time, but... This seems like something I might be able to help with, as... hear me out. As strange as it might sound, we're in town, and, well, it is nightfall, and you're claiming to have these...
00:24:51
Speaker
nightmares that feel so real. I don't have to impose. I don't necessarily have to even be here if he's calling you out the door. Maybe we're nearby. I would have no mind sleeping under the stars this evening if to maybe catch a glimpse of whatever is calling for you. You would do that? That's very, very kind for us.
00:25:20
Speaker
We're goblins. We're just, we work here in this village. We don't even belong here. There was a time and place whenever people, my people, there's no difference between any of us, goblin, dwarf, orc, elf. I don't, I don't care. You are as much alive and as valuable as I am. So yes, I am more than willing to do that for you. You are.
00:25:50
Speaker
You're nothing lower than me. I don't understand why anyone would ever think that. All I've known is people thinking that. Well, I appreciate it. And maybe just hopefully I can sleep more soundly knowing that you're out here. Of course. And if anything arises, I
00:26:15
Speaker
Me and my friends, I have no doubt we'd be at least more than willing to get some kind of answers for you. You deserve at least that, I think. I could say thank you, but it's not enough. And Giss kind of comes out the door at that point and he says, Mother, I'm sorry. I'm sorry, Kriegs. Mother, come back in. Let's get some rest. Come on back.
00:26:45
Speaker
Absolutely, of course. They turn around and kind of go back inside together. Yes, you have yourself a wonderful evening. I very much looking forward to seeing you in the morning. I assume you guys have a fantastic goblin breakfast. I am looking forward to myself. Yes, yeah. We'll see you in the morning. Sleep tight. Good night. He goes in. There's no door to shut, but he kind of disappears in the darkness of the hut there and he's gone.
00:27:14
Speaker
I kind of just murmur, goodnight, guess. And I turn back for the tavern as the music kind of gets a little bit louder as I get closer. Yeah. Yeah. That music starts to pick up. You still hear them in their part and you hear shouts and cries. You hear Gwendolyn shouting something at somebody. And, uh, and Davin, you suddenly, as you're kind of stepping into the hallway, you hear the music picking up outside and
00:27:44
Speaker
You can tell things are still going, going full steam up there out there. What are you going to do?
00:27:53
Speaker
Hey guys, it's Krigs, your number one bald boy with a big shield and hammer coming at you. Swing, swing. Anyway, wanted to stop for a second and say thanks again for the support. And we got some cool things in the works. Probably just after the holiday season, we're going to have some new projects that are
00:28:22
Speaker
Kind of hush hush right now. Don't tell anyone. It's super hush hush. But do tell your friends about the show, if you would. Have you been telling your friends about the show? I don't feel like you've been telling your friends about the show enough.
00:28:36
Speaker
If you really enjoy the show, we don't put any money into advertising. It's all word of mouth. Any of the listeners we've had have either been through social media or just good old people telling the tales of the hired swords and all the dumb problems they find themselves falling into.
00:28:57
Speaker
We super appreciate any support and thank you for it. If you want to, there is going to be a new code at our merch store throughout the end of the year. Why not? If you feel like getting yourself a treat or Christmas is coming up, you want to get your favorite Hired Swords listener something nice, you can use the code
00:29:24
Speaker
Dale. D-A-L-E. That'll get you 15% off your purchase at our Hired Swords merch store. The website for that is thehired.store. Yeah, that's a little bit of wordplay. I'm clever, right? Anyway, if you want to support the show, you can pick up some merch. And if you, if times are tight and it's the holiday season, we get it. And if you want to support the show, just tell a friend about us. That, that means more than
00:29:54
Speaker
I think anything else, honestly, just the excitement that you have from listening. Anyways, I'll let you get back to the episode after a quick word from some of our friends, and you have yourself a great week. I can't wait to see you next week.
Exploring Darnaldi's House
00:30:08
Speaker
Your best friend and bald dwarf man. Bye.
00:30:17
Speaker
Friends, half-forks, countrymen, lend me your pointy ears! Of Mice and Men and Monsters is a podcast which combines the art and beauty of classic literature with the fun of Dungeons and Dragons roleplay. These episodes are led by me, Kate, your master teacher, which is dungeon master meets high school English teacher. We take on quests in these fascinating worlds, meeting and adventuring with the greatest literary characters of all time.
00:30:46
Speaker
Solving puzzles set up by the dubious Dr. Frankenstein? Hunting Moby Dick alongside Captain Ahab. Of Mice and Men and Monsters is a faithful yet irreverent way to interact with the stories which have influenced us for centuries.
00:31:07
Speaker
Plus, it's a much more exciting way to experience literature than writing an essay. Essays don't have swords which burst into flame, or poop monsters hiding in toilets. Anybody got some poop for me? A new episode of Of Mice and Men and Monsters is released every other Wednesday, wherever you listen to podcasts. Uh, Daven's wandering down the hall casually, whistling the music that he hears to himself.
00:31:34
Speaker
Uh, and he's going to move forward. He sees it down the hallway. There's a door on both his left and right. It looks like he's going to move into the right.
00:31:43
Speaker
Okay, you go into the right side and you're in a little kitchen area. There's a small table here. It's low enough for a goblin. There are two small knives and a small frying pan there and just a bottle of, it's like a wine bottle but it's filled with water. There's a sack, kind of like a sack of some sort of dried good laying there by the table. There's a small furnace at the end of the
00:32:06
Speaker
of the room there. This room is kind of strangely shaped. It's like a rectangle except that hallway kind of curves down a little bit so it kind of cuts into the shape of this rectangle of this room. And then there's some logs over on the side by the wood stove. Everything's stacked very neatly and nicely. Again, wood floor, wood walls, everything. You can make an investigation check if you'd like to look further at anything. Sure, I will. Oh, that is not great. It's a nine.
00:32:34
Speaker
Okay. Uh, you look around and as you're digging and kind of looking around you, uh, you don't find much. In fact, the only thing you kind of do notice is that there doesn't seem to be anything fresh here. Food wise, like this place was kind of anything that would spoil has been removed out of this kitchen area. The, the, the furnace has been cleaned out and everything really well. So it's very clean and neat and put everything's put away neatly.
00:33:02
Speaker
All right. Devin wasn't expecting to find much in the kitchen. He's going to make his way across to the other room on the other side of the hall. That room is a small dining table with two chairs, but there's only one place setting there. It's still a place setting, but it's decorative. The plate's very nice. There's a small wooden cup goblet there, a dinner knife and fork. There's an unlit candle and another little jar that typically you would think would contain water or wine. It doesn't have anything in it.
00:33:31
Speaker
And, uh, there is, uh, but yeah, it's just this small round table with a couple of chairs on it and those things on the table. He just casually looking around. He's just going to casually glance underneath the table just to make sure there's nothing hidden underneath it. Okay. Yeah. You glance under the table and it's just table legs and chair legs. Nothing super interesting down there. Uh, wood floor, wood walls, just this little square dining area.
00:33:58
Speaker
then he will leave that and he'll go toward the end of the hallway. Okay, at the end of the hallway, you are now at the front of the house and you see the front door that was locked. You see this big metal latch that is bolted with four bolts on one side of the door and the latch it latches into has four bolts on the stone on the other side. And so this door is latched. You do see two trunks, like chests,
00:34:25
Speaker
Against the wall right right near this door here just just come to the south of where you turn to the corner on this green rug looking down at these these chests. I'm gonna glance and look at them that appear to be locked.
00:34:41
Speaker
One of them does. One of them is kind of shoddy and it's wooden with some metal bracings but not a lot. It's kind of shoddy and it is not locked. The other one is very secure and locked and it's got metal bracings, like a grid of metal bracings on it to keep it sealed and locked. Okay. I'm going to start with the cheaper looking unlocked one. I'll just open it up to see what's inside. Okay.
00:35:07
Speaker
You open it up and you see a, there's just like stacks of papers in there and you can make an investigation check to look through any of that. Sure. Nope, seven.
00:35:20
Speaker
Yep, you look through the papers and nothing really of interest, nothing really catches your eye. It just seems to be random. Half of them are blank, like stacked in there maybe for future use. The other half are just kind of records of, it seems like records of names of people who've come and gone. Devin's not really paying attention to like the details of the papers. The only thing he's looking through them on there to see if there's anything that says sewers on it. No, you don't see anything in this chest that says sewers on it.
00:35:47
Speaker
Okay. So the rest kind of is disinteresting to him. Yeah. He'll place everything back in, try and make it look like he never touched it. And then he's going to just check the top of the inside of the, just to make sure there's no secret compartment. He kind of knows that people like to hide things and. Yeah. Make an investigation check on that. Sure. Oh, a natural 20. All right.
00:36:08
Speaker
You see you're looking real close and you're probably thinking half to yourself, whatever, this is crazy. But sure enough, you notice that a piece of the wood, the grain, is going the wrong direction. He gets excited. He's like, I'm getting good at this. And he's going to open it up or try and see if he can pull it free. OK. Actually, when you reach to kind of grab it, it pushes in and then slides over to the side. And there's a little rolled up piece of paper.
00:36:37
Speaker
And it just has a series of letters and numbers on it. And I'll show you what it is. All sorts of little secret things in this house. And see, Daven's thinking to himself, like, nobody makes things this tricky unless they want you to find it. So this is on purpose. Nice. He wants us in here. That's just the way he's justifying going through other people's things.
00:37:04
Speaker
Yeah. I'm only doing this because he wants me to. Yeah. All right. Do you see that list of letters and numbers? Yeah. It looks like the VIN number for my car. Right off the bat, Daven kind of recognizes on the books, everything had, you know, it was like a version of a book. It was like V1, V1. And he's noticing it's the same kind of pattern here.
Arcane Pouches and Noble Outfit
00:37:25
Speaker
V1, V1, V3, V2. He's putting it together that there's some sort of a puzzle that maybe would help him find something more secret.
00:37:33
Speaker
Okay. But for right now, he's just going to roll it up. He's going to put the compartment back and he's going to keep that little piece of paper and then he'll tuck it into his pocket. All right. And then he's going to go to the more complicated locked chest. All right.
00:37:49
Speaker
That is very locked. You're going to have to make a slide of hand check with your thieves tools or whatever to try to get into that. That is very locked. It's very locked. It's extremely locked. So he'll go in his bag and he reaches and feels around until he can feel it through the invisible bag, his thieves tools, and he pulls them out and he goes over and he's going to try and attempt to unlock it. Slide of hand, you said? Yes. It's a 15 total. Okay. It takes you a while.
00:38:19
Speaker
as you kind of dig into the lock and you try to get it and you think just you're about ready to give up and then it loosens and you're able to pull the lock down real quick and kind of take advantage of that split second and sure enough it unlocks as you rolled exactly what you needed and so the little padlock is off of this now. I was about to give you advantage. How are you going to do that? I mean I was going to like send some vibes over.
00:38:48
Speaker
I was going to I was going to like shimmy my way back to the tavern. He's going to see me through the window and be like, you know what? Yeah, this guy believes in me. I can do it out of nowhere. Daven just feels the energy in the air. He gets up and he starts dancing. The music he can barely hear. No, in reality, what he does is he opens up the lid of the chest. Yeah. And inside there is a small pouch like a two actually identical pouches like bags or two of them.
00:39:17
Speaker
right next to each other. There's also a small, perfectly neatly folded set of pretty nice clothing, like Nobleman's clothing, just one set of clothes. And there is another small bag, like looks like a treasure bag with possibly some gold, some coin in it. He goes to reach and then he stops himself for a second. He thinks,
00:39:43
Speaker
Hmm. No, he wants me to look and then I'm going to go and I'm going to look in the first one on the left that I saw the the first one or the first pouch. Yes. Oh, you justify. Yeah. Like he wants this. This is he wouldn't put this here if he didn't. Yeah. There is nothing in this pouch. I was just empty. When you look at it, it feel empty. Yeah. OK, then I'll go to the next pouch. Also empty.
00:40:11
Speaker
Well, that doesn't make any sense. I'm going to reach in and just to, just to double check and stick my hand in the pouch. Okay. Make an investigation check. Okay. Your hand pops out of the other pouch. That would be kind of cool. That would be, it's a 22 investigation. I'll beat that DM. Yeah. As you start to feel around in there, um, you, you don't feel anything in the pouch.
00:40:40
Speaker
But this almost like electrical surge starts to spark through your body as you feel it. And something kind of tells you that there's some sort of arcane energy involved in this pouch and possibly the other one as well. He thinks to himself and says,
00:41:01
Speaker
He's probably not going to come back here anyways after all the things that have been going on. He's not going to want these to sit here not being used. And Devin's going to put them in his bag, both pouches in his backpack. Okay. And then I'll go to the last bag that you said was there. Yeah. And it's a bag of coin. No, okay. I'll take that too. Okay. I'm stealing all of his stuff. Okay. Video game style, maybe. He picks it up. He thinks, we'll vote on it. I'll bring back what we don't want to keep.
00:41:30
Speaker
Justifying every little so the only thing left in that now is the really is the nice set of like change of clothes. Okay He's gonna leave that there for now. He doesn't care about clothes. Okay, so he's gonna leave that he'll close the lid back down But he's not gonna lock it back up. He's afraid that he won't be able to get it open again So he's gonna put the padlock back on but he won't lock it got it. All right as he's heading out and
00:41:53
Speaker
He's starting to find like connections between all this stuff and he realized there might be some more to it with the books after seeing these numbers. So he's going to go back over to the bookshelf and he's going to grab a piece of paper and the quill that he had taken from the room and he's going to write down, spend the time and write down all of the books and all of the numbers that he sees. Just a copy of them. Then he's going to sneak back out the back door.
00:42:15
Speaker
Okay, you write all that stuff down and get out the back door. When you get out the back door, the music kind of picks up. It sounds a little louder. You hear the tavern door closed as Krigs was walking back. I guess, did you go back into the tavern? Yeah, I went back in there to kind of reconvene with everybody. Yeah, so the door closes as Krigs goes back in there.
00:42:37
Speaker
You're just kind of standing invisible on the outside of this place. What is your visibility an hour? Yeah. You still have probably a half hour if you need it. He's going to spend the next 10 minutes in front of his, the, where he's staying. Just sit there and just dancing freely. Like no one can see him. Yeah. Just like complete like out just the most embarrassing dancing he can because he knows nobody can watch him do it.
00:42:59
Speaker
Yeah, you are. Hang on. You just see like little tufts of dust come up from the ground as your cape's like breezing the... It's got wind. Yeah. All right. Back to the party.
00:43:16
Speaker
Gwynn, Joxer, Krigs. The goblins are still going at it. They're partying, having a good time. Kevin's face down on the table, on the bar, just dozing now. He's done. He's already out. He barely made it through that plate of food. He just kept getting brew after brew poured for him. And he's called it a night, looks like, right there where he was, where he sat. This guy knows how to have a good time.
00:43:43
Speaker
just like his namesake. And so, um, we, uh, so yeah, the bard's gonna, he kind of stops playing music for a second and, uh, he, uh, steps, kind of steps away from, from all the music and, and goes over to get a drink and some of the other people are still kind of banging on, banging on spoons and banging on, on goblets and stuff like that and, and, uh, getting kind of,
00:44:10
Speaker
trying to pick up where he left off, but it's just not quite the same without the guy actually playing the instruments, but he needed a break. He's been playing her half hour, so his first set is complete. What are you guys doing during all that? Kevin, that was so much fun, and she pats him, and her eyes are closed, because she's had a little bit to drink. I think I'm going to go lay down. Dale's feet are tired from dancing.
00:44:39
Speaker
Absolutely. Before you go, take a small glass of this one. What was that? She turns around. This one, just a small glass of this one. I think this brew you'll enjoy and it'll ease tomorrow morning.
00:45:00
Speaker
Okay. And she grabs the glass and chugs it as fast as she can. She's like one of those kids that drinks one of those Kool-Aid packets when they go. That felt good. Good night. And you see her, she's walking, but she has that slight stumble every so often. And she's just hands forward, eyes kind of open, and she's just trying to find a bed.
00:45:30
Speaker
This is all too specific to not be Ash, right? So you, you go outside and over towards the cabins, try to get into that cabin, make a, um, make a constitution saving throw. Oh no. 10 plus four, 14. Yeah. You make it to the cabin that you had, uh,
00:46:00
Speaker
that you had gone to in the first place. I was, you're rolling to decide if you went to the wrong cabin, but you're fine. You see her walk in and she just finds the first door and she just finds the bed and plops down and then snuggles with Dale and falls asleep. Cool. Yeah. You notice as you walk into the, there lay down or you don't notice this, but there is no, there's no pen or there's no quill or paper on there.
00:46:25
Speaker
You totally went into the room, Daven had already claimed, but it doesn't matter. Perfect. You don't care. Even better. Don't care. Yeah. All right. Excuse me. That music you were playing, what was that instrument? Oh, I made that. You like that? That's fantastic. Well, I just...
00:46:51
Speaker
Never had all the pieces to do one instrument, so I put the pieces from a bunch of different instruments together and I made that. What do you think? That was pretty great. That's one of the best things I've ever seen. My name's Joxer. What's yours? It's nice to meet you. I'm Vail. It's nice to meet you. My real name's too hard for non-goblins to pronounce, but I go by Vail.
00:47:18
Speaker
I appreciated Vale. Yeah, of course. You said Jogger? This is great brew. This is stuff you've made her. Yes, I dabble a bit. Please try this one. I'm supposed to... I think I'm gonna call this one Fairy Tales.
00:47:37
Speaker
Okay. Okay. I like that. It's like a, it's like a song title or a lyric fairy tales. That's good. I'm going to start drinking and he, he doesn't chug. He's kind of a sipper. So he's just kind of, uh, yeah, that's good. That's, it's got a nice, um, okay. Sorry. He's going to quote the office after birth.
00:48:02
Speaker
It does. It does. It's kind of nice. It's got a nice oaky taste to it, like the roof of your mouth. The mouth feels really good and takes another sip and swishes it around a little bit. This goblin's totally wearing a puka shell necklace, isn't he? Whatever, bro. I think I would have been walked in at this point, probably passing Gwen as she walked out. So.
00:48:30
Speaker
I would approach Joxer and Vail as they're kind of chatting. Okay. I hate Krigs. Meet Vail. Well, you know, he was the one making the music. That was... I haven't heard music like that since...
00:48:48
Speaker
Oh, I don't know how many years ago it's been. I reckon never. More than likely not. That was some kind of instrument I've seen as something of a craftsman myself, but I've never seen anything quite like that. Well, I dabble. I'm not much of a craftsman, but I put together that because I needed something to play. And you don't have the music in you.
00:49:19
Speaker
and not let it out. You know what I'm saying? You gotta let it out. You just gotta feel it, man. I get it. You gotta vibe it hard. Exactly. Where there's a will, there's a way, my man. Exactly. And where there's a way, you just gotta open the door for the way. Yeah, just really let it all out sometimes. Put it on the floor. I'm picking up what you're putting down.
00:49:40
Speaker
Thank you. I like this guy. And he just downs that cup of stuff you gave him. I like this guy. You know what? You've inspired me. And he goes up, back up to the stage, and he gets his instrument, and he starts singing, where there's a wheel. You've got to make a way. And he starts belting it out while he's playing his songs. He's my new favorite character of this campaign. Vail. I love it. Vail and Dale. It's a new season coming out.
00:50:10
Speaker
I'm gonna sit there and just like listen and appreciation and while listening I'm gonna kind of turn back to Joxer and hey that Joxer, that food, is there any more? I'm gonna be... I followed Gis over back to his residence and there was his mother who's been having some what Gis believes are nightmares but we've seen strange things out in these wilds. It wouldn't...
00:50:39
Speaker
be too surprising for me if there wasn't a little bit something more afoot here. I'd be willing to stay out and kind of keep watch, but I'm a little peckish. Is there any more food or I could take a stein with me or something? I kind of intend to
00:50:56
Speaker
Maybe sleep out under the stars this evening. Yeah, there's a little bit more back here. Let me muster that up and then I'll put together a bowl and kind of try to pour or get one of the somewhat empty brew.
00:51:16
Speaker
caskets out and you can take this one. It's got a couple of glasses in. Once everything slows down here, I'll probably try to join you. Do you know that they're just with the other huts over there?
00:51:32
Speaker
You should see me. It's not too far out from here. It's over the way. And by all means, yeah, it'd be nice to spend some time under the stars. We've been in Wild Hill for a while now, staying at the Bogoshack. It does the body good a little bit to get some fresh air, so by all means, I'd be more than welcome to have you over there. Now, you said you had a treat or something when I was leaving out the first time?
00:51:57
Speaker
I'd hate to miss that. Yes, the brew that I just opened, it has a healing effect, I suppose. It lifts the spirits. A little bit of vigor in that vinegar, okay. Yes, and then I'll pour you a glass and it definitely has much sweeter notes than my normal beers. I was looking for something a little bit more, I don't know,
00:52:29
Speaker
Davin's taste. Ah, yes, not an ounce of regret. Candy cane and mustard? Oh god. More of Davin's taste? This is uncharacteristically good compared to some of your more recent failures. No offense. I understand how hard it is to find ingredients out here in the wild.
00:52:49
Speaker
You know, sometimes those failures are almost intended. You know, brews are meant to be effective for something, I suppose. I get you. I'm picking up what you're putting down and I'm going to take the drink and the food he made and gesture back to the bard. You know, where there's a will, there's a way. And I'm going to start heading out.
00:53:14
Speaker
Not rudely. I don't want him to be offended by me walking out during the song. I want to jocks or we'll just respond after you. You better open that door. And as you as you start to walk out, he starts stomping his foot and the horns are all blasting. He's just going. Open the door, goblin rave. He's just in this like total like, yeah, rave like if there was foam, it would be like all out, you know.
00:53:43
Speaker
Oh, so good. I'm going to walk back to the little barricary area we got, and I'm going to grab my shield and my hammer and kind of suit back up a little bit because I'm not one to be unprepared for whatever is potentially going to happen.
00:54:02
Speaker
As I pass by Gwen, watching her just be completely zonked out with Dale, I'm going to pull the blanket up a little bit more and make sure they're both tucked in. And I don't assume I see Daven, but I definitely see a few wisps of dust just outside. When those trumpet sounds are going there, something's happened, a little dust devil or something spinning about.
00:54:27
Speaker
And I'm gonna go take my leave for the night out in front of Giss's residence and kind of post up at the nearby stumps and where the fire is and just wait and watch. Okay. You go kind of sit and post up. Gwen, you've headed to bed. Jox, you're wrapping things up. The party is...
00:54:51
Speaker
After this last song, the veil does, the party starts to mellow out and that was kind of like the last hurrah for the night. Everybody starts to chill out. Davin, what are you doing as that's all settling in? I go back to my room, notice it's now occupied. So I pick up the rest of my clothes that I left in there and I just will go to the next room. I drop invisibility, whatever's left of it. I'll just go to the next room that I know that nobody else has taken yet. I'm going to sit down.
00:55:18
Speaker
I'm going to pull out all the paperwork, the stuff that I just wrote down in the box. So there's all these symbols on top of this box. Yes, correct. Are they carved in? Do they move? Are they buttons? How does it work? It looks like they're printed on parchment that has been placed on the wood and then some sort of varnish or something has been put over that wood to make it stay there.
00:55:39
Speaker
He kind of goes through and he looks at the numbers that he found on that little note. And then it says like V1, B3. And he looks at the list of all of the books and everything. He finds through and he says, drink of death. And he looks in the box, he sees a skull and some crossbones and he's gonna put his finger on there and press on it, see if that does anything.
Puzzle Box Mystery
00:56:00
Speaker
When you put your finger on it, it lights up like a black purple and then right back out again.
00:56:07
Speaker
Daven literally jumps up and starts dancing around the room again and is still a little dance he was doing outside. Then he sits back down and he writes down the rest of the numbers and he kind of correlates it to the rest of the books.
00:56:18
Speaker
He says that it looks like each one of the books kind of relates to one of the pictures, but going by the little note he had, he found the drink of death, the harvest, the baker's feast, Lem's guide to tracking and hunting, and Wayton's whirlwind seemed to be the books listed. Okay, so what symbols did that make you push? So the drink of death would be the skull and bones. The harvest looks like a little corn stock or
00:56:44
Speaker
Yeah. Yeah. Or I guess we can call it some wild glizzies if you want to. I love the word. The baker's feast. There's a loaf of bread. I'm going to do that one third. Lem's guide to tracking and hunting. I see a paw print, so I'll press that one. And then Waiten's whirlwind. I see a little spiral in the bottom right corner. Okay. So you start pushing them, but every time you push, you push the bread and it lights and stays lit up.
00:57:14
Speaker
You push the wheat and it stays lit up. You push the skull and crossbones and it fades out and everything that you push before it fades out immediately. He's gonna glance over the pictures and he's gonna see if there's something else that could possibly be the drink of death. And he sees there's another one that kind of looks like maybe some sort of like a little vile potion bottle second row toward the right. So he's gonna replace the skull and bones with that one and see if it makes a difference.
00:57:44
Speaker
You push them, five of them in a row and they stay lit. You hit that potion and it lights up that dark black purple and stays lit. And you push them all. And when you finally push all of them, that whole top part of that box just starts to spread from the middle and it like slides open and
00:58:11
Speaker
And there's an open box with just one small piece of paper inside that box. I was kind of hoping for something magical, but more paper I guess is a thing too. I'm going to lift it up and I'm going to unfurl it and see what it is. We will see what that is next time. No.
00:58:49
Speaker
Thank you for listening to episode three of our second season. We really appreciate you joining us for this adventure. If you enjoyed our show, tell a friend about us, and if you really enjoyed it, tell the world and leave a review. Be sure to check out our merch shop at thehired.store.
00:59:06
Speaker
And if you want to keep up with us and what we're up to, you can find us on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram at The Hired Swords. Again, thank you for listening.